What is recorded here

Donal Chieftain of the McCarthy Fineens bled out at Callan in August 1261, and his body crossed the valley to rest beneath a flat oval stone on the Slaheny slope. The chieftain may have been misnamed in later memory, yet the stone still holds the weight of that summer fight. A low wall and modern plaque guard the place where heroic pride and historical fact collide.

On the W side of a road c. 100m NW of the site of Callan battlefield (KE094-017----), on a N-facing slope overlooking the valley of the Slaheny River. A roughly oval stone (2.55m N-S; 1.4m E-W), lying flat on the ground, is reputed to mark the burial place of 'Donal Chieftain of the McCarthy Fineens' who died during the battle in August 1261. The stone lies within a small rectangular area enclosed by a stone wall. A modern plaque on the W enclosing wall commemorates Donal McCarthy Fineen though Casey (2000, 20), while accepting that a McCarthy chieftain and perhaps others were buried here, states that the burial could not have been a McFinneen, as this particular McCarthy sept did not exist at the time of the Battle of Callan. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Kerry. Volume I: South-West Kerry' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 30 May 2011

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